Connecting rod



Oct. 19, 1937. SCHAEFER 2,096,068

CONNECTING ROD Filed Nov. 25, 1936 FIG. 1.

WITNESSES d HZFZIZVTOR. 7 BY [27 2 5mm. Mr

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 19, 1937 V y.

UNITED sr ras 2,096,068" CONNECTING non Frederic 'Schaefer, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application November 2 Claims.

This invention relates to connecting rods for brake rigging of railway car trucks.

It is an object of this invention to provide a light weight connecting rod, of the type referred to above, all parts of which are capable of successfully withstanding the strain they are subjected to in use. Other objects are to provide such a rod in which substantially perfect bosses are formed around the eyes in the forks, and in which the. fork flanges are not distorted and thereby weakened when the forks are spread apart during the formation of the yokes.

Accordingly, a connecting rod having a tubular body terminating in bifurcated ends or yokes is formed from a blank having a thickened wall between its central portion and portions adjacent the edges of the blank. The forks of the bifurcated ends are forged to provide them with strengthening flanges, and with eyes encircled by bosses to increase their bearing areas. At the junction of the tubular body with the bifurcated ends there are strengthening bulges that extend from the full distance between the fork flanges, whereby the inner ends of the flanges are backed up and prevented from being distorted by the tool used in spreading the forks to form the yokes. The thickened side walls of the blank strengthen the rod at the junction of the body with the yokes, and also supply sufficient metal for the formation of full bosses around the. eyes.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. l is a plan view of the metal plate or blank from which the rod is formed; Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section thereof; Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the blank after it has been forged and trimmed; Figs. 4 and 5 are plan and side views, respectively, of one end of the completely formed rod; and Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are transverse sections of the rod taken on lines VI-VI, VII-VII and VIII-VIII, respectively, of Fig. 5.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the. drawing, the connecting rod is forged from a rectangular rolled channel-shape plate or blank I having curved side flanges 2 and a medial outwardly extending corrugation 3 extending longitudinally thereof. It is a feature of this invention that the wall 4 of the plate between this corrugation and the side flanges is thickened as shown for purposes to be described later. The blank is forged and trimmed to produce the blank shown in Fig. 3 in which the ends of the body portion 5 are bifurcated to form forks 6 each of which is provided with holes or eyes 1 adapted to receive pins for connecting the rod to brake levers. Each of the 23, 1936, Serial No. 112,279

eyes is encircled by an annular boss 8 to increase the bearing surface of the eye, and each of the forks is surrounded on three sides by a strengthening flange 9. At the junction of the body portion and each fork the. blank is provided with a strengthening bulge ll.

The blank shown in Fig. 3 is then bent around a former to produce the tubular body l2 of a connecting rod and to bring forks- 6 into parallelism to form the end yokes of the rod with flanges 9 projecting inwardly and bulges H extending outwardly as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The forks at each end of the body are so close together after the bending operation that it is necessary to spread them apart in a subsequent operation. It will be seen that the curved surfaces of the side flanges 2 of the channel section of Fig. 2 lie in the curved surfaces of the body adjoining the seam I3 in Fig. 8, and that the curved surfaces of the medial corrugation 3 lie in the curved surfaces of the portion of the body diametrically opposite to the seam. Accordingly, this bending of the forged blank is accomplished principally by bending the thickened walls 4 of the blank until the edges of the side flanges meet.

Due to the thick side walls of the body, the junction of the body with the forks is strengthened sufficiently to withstand all forces to which the rod is subjected, and these former points of weakness are therefore eliminated. Another advantage flowing from this invention is that the portions'of the thickened walls 4 in which the eyes are formed supply sufiicient metal to completely fill the dies that form the bosses 8 around the eyes, whereby substantially perfect bosses are formed as shown in Fig. 6. This gives the eyes bearing surfaces of large area and thus diminishes the chance of failure at those points. If there is any surplus metal it flows into flanges 9 and strengthens them.

A further feature of this invention is that strengthening bulges ll extend the full distance between fork flanges 9, merging into those flanges as shown in Figs. 5 and '1. Consequently, the portions of the flanges opposite to seam 13 are backed up by the bulges and are thereby prevented from being turned outwardly at their inner ends by the pressure of the tool that spreads the forks apart to form the yokes. As a result, those portions of flanges 9 are not distorted nor bowed outwardly which would form potential weak points at which the rod might fail in service.

In a connecting rod constructed in accordance with this invention an abundant supply of metal is provided where it is needed most, while the por- ,tions' of the rod'tha't are not subjected to much strain have a relatively thin wall; whereby an exceptionally strongrod is produced that is actually *lighter in Weight than those known heretofore.

It is unnecessary to try to flow metal from one location'to another during the forging of the con- I necting rod blank, because the metal distributed at the outset. l V i a a i According tothe provisions of the patent stat utes, I have explained the principlev and construc- .tion of my invention, and have illustrated and de' 1, scribed what I'now considerrto beits best'embodi-j' ment, However, I desire that; within the scope of the appended claims, the

invention 'may be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described. f

'Iclaim: V i

1; Aconnecting rod having a tubular body terminating in'yokes, said body being provided with l "smashes-J f V H single seani extending throughout its length f is properly tohave it understood the opposite 'side walls of said body between portions adjacent the seam and a portion diametri-' 1 cally opposite to the seam being thickened rla-' tive, to those portions, whereby the rod is strength- 1 cried in the Wall portions joining the body to said yokes.

2. A connecting rod' having a tubularbody' terminating in bifurcated ends provided with side 7 seam; extendingithroughout its length, the opf posite side walls of said body between portions ada V V V jacent the seam and a portiondiametrically op-e V posite to the seam rbeinggthickened relative to flanges, saidbo'dy being provided with a single those portions, and the portions of said thickened side Walls joining the body to said bifurcated ends :bulging outwardly the full distance between said flanges.

' FREDERIC SCHAEFERV 

